Reader Beware: Dora's Demise is Graphically Reported

I love odd coincidences...love them even when I realize the coincidence after the fact and even if, as in this case, it is rather grisly.  Yesterday I received some new old photos to treasure from my uncle of family members I only knew by name--never in person.  These folks are from my maternal grandfather's side.

My G-grandfather is second from the left and was married to Rhuma Gregory.  Fanny was the only girl in the family of boys and lived to be 100.  My mother said it was probably because she never married.  I remember going to her birthday party as a kid.  She had been a hairdresser and responsible for many a frizzy do my mom and my aunt sported as kids.

However, the coincidence comes from my Gregory side.  The Gregorys were a family of 5 daughters two of which drew the short straw when it came to names.  You can decide who I mean out of this list: Rhuma; Orpha; Dora; Sybil; Marietta.  Rhuma was my great grandmother and I don't think that name has survived into the current generation.  Orpha and Rhuma married two of the brothers pictured above but it was Dora who married first out of the Gregory girls and had a daughter right away.  She was then widowed, remarried and had three more children.  After I got the two pictures yesterday I was speaking with Diana about them and what snippets of family history we knew.  We both remembered hearing "one of the sisters was run over by a buggy".  Well, Diana was sure she was hit by a train but I thought she went under the wheels of a carriage.  So I did a little research and found out we were both right in a way. 

So what's the grisly coincidence?  We thought of this sister, who turned out to have been Dora, yesterday, April 22nd which was the 82nd anniversary of the incident.  Here's the tragedy as reported:


LOWVILLE TIMES
LOWVILLE, N. Y., THURSDAY, APRIL 22,1926
KILLED AT RAILROAD CROSSING

Mrs. Dora Glass Drives Horse on Tracks in Front of Locomotive and Body is Badly Mangled.

Mrs. Dora Glass, 48, town of Rutland, mother of three children, met almost Instant death last Thursday afternoon at 3:45 when the buggy In which she was riding was struck on the grade crossing between Felts Mills and Great Bend by a shifting engine, composed of a locomotive and five freight, cars.

The woman's body was badly mangled, the buggy was wrecked. The horse escaped with a cut foot. The wheels of the engine and two freight cars passed over parts of the woman's body.

Mrs. Glass was on the way to her home, three miles away, having been to Great Bend. The top of the buggy was up, while the curtains were drawn. The engine, with the cars attached on the front end, was backing down the track in the same direction that the woman was driving. The road and tracks are almost parallel at the crossing.
The fireman testified at the inquest held by District Attorney E. R. Wllcox shortly after1 the accident, that he saw the woman nearing the grade crossing, but that the horse stopped as the train was approaching. Then suddenly he saw the  horse start up again, and he shouted to the engineer to apply the brakes. The vehicle was but several yards away. The brakes were set, but too late. The rear end of the locomotive hit the buggy at the driver's seat.

The buggy was demolished and the horse broke away. The woman dropped to the tracks. Whew the train was brought to a stop, she was found caught on brake rods on the third freight car. The train crew testified that the engine was going between 10 and 12 miles at the time of the accident.

Mrs. Glass had been, married twice. Her first husband was Rev. Mr. Hubbard, who was at one time pastor of a church at Champion. He died a number of years ago, and later Mrs. Hubbard was married to Arthur C. Glass, of the town of Rutland. Most of her life was spent in the towns of Champion and Rutland. She was born in the town of Champion, daughter of the late Elnathan Gregory and Mrs. Elizabeth Gregory.

She is survived by her husband; a daughter, Miss Ruth Hubbard, of Pulaski and three sons, Harold, Louis and Howard Glass, of Black River; by her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Gregory, of Black River; three sisters, Mrs. Harlow Nye and Miss Sybil Gregory, of Black River, and Mrs. Brayton Nye. of Syracuse.

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